News

July 19, 2015

New Zulu Keeps it Clean with Abekas AirCleaner

Menlo Park, CA, September 4, 2015–Newzulu, the world’s leading crowd-sourced news and freelance journalism platform, announced today they have installed eight Abekas AirCleaner profanity elimination systems, one in each of their production centers around the world. Headquartered in Sydney—with global operations based in Paris—Newzulu operates eight bureau studios around the world including London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Sydney and Auckland.

Founded in 2007 as Citizenside, in partnership with l’Agence France-Presse (AFP), Newzulu has grown to a network of more than 150,000 amateur and freelance journalist contributors located in over 150 countries worldwide, with an archive containing more than 1.5 million content assets available for licensing. Newzulu receives approximately 600 to 1000 images per day and distributes to its wire partners between 20 to 40 stories, each consisting of 5 to 20 items of content (images, videos); for an average total of 200 to 300 assets a day.

At Newzulu’s editorial office in Los Angeles a team of journalists review submitted content and package news stories to make them valuable to their media partners. Each of the eight studios is equipped identically and are linked globally to facilitate collaboration.

“AirCleaner is really plug-and-play, it really could not be easier to install and operate. We have eight AirCleaners now, one in each news bureau and they work flawlessly 24/7,” says Andy Crosby, Senior Vice President- Video, NewZulu Limited.

As NewZulu delivers feeds and packaged stories to media outlets around the globe with different broadcast rules, regulations and content ratings, the video is passed through an Abekas AirCleaner to ensure compliance. The output of AirCleaner is delayed by three seconds giving the operator the time to react and censor offensive visual or aural content from the feed being distributed. NewZulu uses AirCleaner’s unique audio scramble and video defocus set to 60% to ensure any offensive content passes even the most stringent broadcast rules.

“The nature of the news sources and distribution partner’s broadcast requirements makes AirCleaner perfectly suited for Newzulu’s operations,” said Junaid Sheikh, CEO, Abekas. “Simple installation and intuitive operation are hallmarks of AirCleaner and we’re pleased with the feedback we have received from the team at Newzulu.”